


thresher

by Vnutrenni



Category: Legacy of Kain
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-14
Updated: 2012-02-14
Packaged: 2017-10-31 03:37:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/339465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vnutrenni/pseuds/Vnutrenni
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's satisfying to give Raziel what he wants, knowing that he'll get what he deserves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	thresher

**Author's Note:**

> For Porn Battle XIII. _Legacy of Kain, Rahab/Raziel, eat, black, water, gills_

What Raziel fails to understand — what all of the others, sullen and remiss in their envy, have yet to realize — is this: pain is currency.

Through Rahab's clever bargaining with evolution, the deadly threat of water is overcome; he has survived immersion. Lain in the world's blood and emerged from it whole, unblemished. Once, he would have thought this terrifying and impossible; and even now he thinks it is so, but he has done it and certainly he will do it again in service to the master and lord sire, Kain. Perhaps, in time, he will even welcome it; perhaps. He finds such a thing difficult to imagine because the change is young in him and the price of its manifestation is the purest pain, fathomless as a lost ocean pulling on the far rim of the earth.

He still feels it, the water's tearing grasp. Like formless teeth locked in his flesh, pressure smashing his bones into coral flecks, he feels the depths of it, the weight, and now he can survive it indefinitely. Some craven membrane in him flutters with terror when he thinks of this, so he does not think of it. He tells himself that any measure of pain is worth the moment when he first demonstrated his ability for the council's acknowledgment at the Sanctuary of the Clans. As he stepped into the provided water, even Kain had nearly gasped; nearly.

More than acknowledging it, Kain himself had called it visionary. Called _him_ visionary, and beautiful. And that, Rahab thinks, must be the crux of it, the very thing Raziel cannot tolerate. He had never been one to spare much attention for Rahab's presence at the Sanctuary before, but this has rapidly been changing. He has grown watchful and calculating, observing Rahab during meetings of the council like a sable fox in the grass. Blithely ignoring him is a pleasure Rahab had never expected to enjoy in his life, so he has been taking full advantage of this opportunity; but only up to a point, of course. After all, Raziel is not to be disregarded completely. He remains the most decorated and highly favoured of Kain's sons. He is dangerous, and Rahab never turns his back on dangerous creatures. Nor, for that matter, does he possess the rank to turn and walk away if Raziel chooses to address him.

And so Raziel does; he finds Rahab alone in the cold chamber, deboning corpses and restructuring them with metal and stone and wood, and he comments on the work. Something about Melchiah, and jealousy. And so Rahab must greet him with formality and respect, and so he must indulge his questions with answers, and so he must let him touch the soft, slitted gills at his neck, and so he must touch Raziel in turn as he is told where and how and when. And so they become entangled in an unlit, frigid room, watched by the rankless dead. It would be wisest to let Raziel lead the beginning of the exchange and, while this would usually cause Rahab acute distaste, he reminds himself that the sun is swinging like meat on a hook through the smoke-clotted sky. All things are in their own order, as they should be.

Placed on his back, Rahab lies still while Raziel slides fang and tongue into his gills slowly, almost as though the membranes repulse him but he must pretend otherwise. This sensation is very particular, troubling and intoxicating. Both of them are shaking, he realizes, suddenly yearning for very simple things. Raziel draws them to the center of the room and offers himself there, smiling strangely as Rahab crawls jointlessly over him, tests the lock of their hips, the different ways they can move together and against each other. Eventually he loses interest in the idea of penetration and slips down Raziel's body like a receding tide, stripping him of harness and talismans piece by piece, tracing with talons, knowing what he wants, knowing _exactly_. Wondering if he should grant it without permission or wait to be directed. He decides etiquette has no place on a slaughtering floor, scuttles himself to the side and takes Raziel's cock in his mouth in a single, continuous motion. Then he stops, waits until he knows that he is being watched, fans the gills open and closed theatrically. Of course he is not able to breathe through them out of water, and he doubts that Raziel can feel much of their motion; but still, Raziel does make a sound that very much suggests he may be drowning, and he says something as well, which Rahab finds offensive and oddly poetic at once.

"Water lily," Raziel breathes, as if intending it as an insult, and Rahab must be mindful of his cutting teeth, must be so gentle and clever with them that no one would guess he is daydreaming about claiming the cruelest mouthful of meat with just a delicate twitch of his head.

Flesh is sated too easily. Raziel's legs twist, his long muscles flicker and catch, and Rahab licks up the aftermath quickly, his eyes narrow and keen. Already Raziel is gazing back at him, fascinated, surely curious to know what favour he will want in return. The moment is surreal and incredible; the eldest lies beneath him and Rahab is debating what to demand of him, thinking of all the many, many things he could receive.

"I must tell you something awful," he says at last.

Intrigued, Raziel sits up and studies him from an inch away.

What Rahab wants is this: to take all of Raziel's favours and throw them into the sea. He wants to bite Raziel in the throat and find out if he tastes like saltwater, to pull him under a wave and know that they burn with the same agony while Raziel falls to oily foam and Rahab endures, to sink as far from the sunlight as anyone could go, into the hadal depths, into darkness, feasting on his brother's corpse and power where no one else could reach them. He wants to fuck him at the bottom of the Abyss.

Rahab leans to meet him, mouths his lips, seems to think.

Rahab says: "There is nothing I really want from you."

It takes a moment for the fact of these words to settle completely. Not once does Raziel's expression change. He kisses Rahab several times, and toys with the gills again, and reassembles himself elegantly, and claws Rahab rather fiercely in the shoulder. For his part Rahab responds favourably to all of it, but does nothing more to contribute. Finally Raziel stands and circles him, slowly, just as he might do to some truly unpredictable animal, then looks him in the eye, then says: "As you will, brother." And leaves.

There are covered troughs of water on one side of the room. While it may be quite unsafe, human bodies are often easiest to study and manipulate when they have been washed of refuse, and water is the best tool for cleaning them. Despite the general rule that the entire Sanctuary should remain free of natural threats, there are several exceptions like these, made to accommodate the hobbies and desires of those on council. When Raziel has gone, Rahab goes to the wall, uncovers one of the great vessels and climbs inside it. The pain is relief. Water guts him and holds him and he stays wrapped within it until he suddenly convulses and is granted the sexual climax he had thought to deny himself. He laughs. Pay in pain and eventually the reward becomes pleasure. All things are in their order indeed, and he thinks of all the pleasures Raziel has accepted freely, the tribute he expects as his due. He will be called on to repay that debt someday and he has no idea. Another small part of it was just accrued. When the time for recompense finally comes, Rahab hopes abstractly that he is there to acknowledge it.


End file.
